Motorbike, car imports unexpectedly decline in June

The import of motorbikes and cars in June 2010 unexpectedly dropped after an impressive May increase.

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), in June 2010 an estimated 6000 motorbikes were imported to Vietnam, worth seven million dollars. Thus, the upward trend seen in May has ended as the import volume unexpectedly decreased by 2800 motorbikes (five million dollars in import value).

The total import revenue of motorbikes in the first six months of 2010 has reached $55 million (44,900 motorbikes). If compared with the same period of 2009, the import revenue of those imported under the mode of complete built units (CBU) decreased by 25.1 percent, while the number of imported motorbikes overall decreased by 23.1 percent.

An analysis of monthly import revenues in the first half of 2010 averaged around $7-8 million, while the number of imported motorbikes hovered around 6000-7000, much lower than the averages for the first six months of 2009.

Economists find it difficult to understand why May revenues increased so sharply over April. They pointed out that there was no change in tax policies or in market conditions that were powerful enough to cause the sharp increases.

In January, import revenues also rose sharply (10,000 motorbikes imported worth $12 million), but most explained this as a result of the Tet holiday, when importers tried to export as many products as they could.

Similarly, car import revenues paralleled this trend, witnessing a serious decrease in June after increasing sharply in May.

GSO reported that June car import revenues reached $81 million, with 4500 cars imported. In May 2010, 5339 CBU cars were imported, worth $88.5 million.

In the first half of the year, GSO revealed, the number of CBU cars imported to Vietnam reached 23,000, with import revenues of $394 million

As such, if comparing with the same period of 2009, car import revenues in the first half of 2010 decreased by 4.2 percent, while the number of imports decreased by 3.9 percent.